Hello from me

Hello,

 

I am currently not on benzodiazepines or any other prescribed medication. In fact I have never taken benzos. I did take prozac for a year or two a long time ago.

 

At first I liked prozac but it was probably more from the placebo effect and the sense that people were taking my problems seriously. But it didn't really solve anything.

 

I've made progress but I'm in a place where I feel like I might end up talking to a doctor or someone about mental health issues again. As much as I have doubts about medications, I've had even worse experiences with the whole "talking about your problems" thing. So in a way, that doesn't leave a whole lot else from a medical point of view lol.

 

Anyway, I'm hoping to find more answers here. Thanks.

Hello yarlanzey and welcome to BenzoBuddies,

 

You are now registered and you're free to explore the site.  You will learn a lot about benzos here and the problems they create for many people.  The mission of this site is to provide support and information to individuals who wish to withdraw from benzodiazepines.

 

How can we help you? 

 

Brighterday

Thanks.

 

I'm aware that, as someone who has never taken benzos, I'm not exactly the average user of this forum.

 

Generally speaking, I haven't had good experiences whenever I've talked about my problems in much detail, so I'm not sure where to start really! Recently I messaged someone online who was empathetic about my issues, but the person was very much a believer in the usual psychiatry and medications route. I'm not! I suppose my opinion of these things is, that although some important discoveries have been made in psychology, there are also a lot of errors and the whole thing doesn't tend to be particularly scientific (but again, there is some truth there). Also the Hippocratic oath to "first do no harm" doesn't tend to be applied much. So far I'm not even talking about medications. Things get even worse when it comes to mental health medications, although I'm not 100 per cent against them as they may be helpful to some. But on the whole they seem to do more harm than good, and that's not even a controversial statement any more.

 

I suppose I'll take a risk and briefly spell out a problem that has been bothering me. I have a fear of exams in general. I could probably live with this fear if it didn't include the driving test. I've had many lessons, studied books and videos about driving, and I have a lot of driving experience. Unfortunately the lessons often did more harm than good because a couple of the instructors were very critical and just made things worse. If I could go back in time I'd start with the books and videos and so on. Anyway, a while back I did a pre-test lesson with an excellent instructor (finally) and she was impressed by my ability and was probably surprised that I hadn't passed already (I didn't tell her about my problems, due to trying that with the previous instructor and it probably made things worse).

 

Anyway, the last few times I've booked a driving test, the anxiety is tolerable until it isn't. Eventually it becomes extreme fight-or-flight where it's impossible to think straight and there's a risk I'll do something that could cause unintentional injury to myself (like punching a wall or something). My mind basically forces me to cancel the test. Then I feel like crap afterwards. It wouldn't be as bad if my mind would prevent me from booking the test in the first place, saving me from getting any false hope!

 

Perhaps this could be cured gradually by a lot of exposure to the driving test centre, plenty of driving practice on the routes and so on and so forth. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of money, I don't live very near a driving test centre, I'm not sure if I know anyone who would be empathetic enough to be in the car with me while doing this kind of thing (you need a qualified driver in the car with you) and so on. Also I'd kind of have to tell them about the test, which would put more pressure on me to pass (frankly it would be nice to even be able to do the test, even if I failed.. maybe "nice" isn't the right word lol).

 

So one option is to go the route of doctors, medication and so on. A couple of problems there, again I'd worry that the medications would do more harm than good. Also as I've kind of mentioned, I've had plenty of bad experiences from talking about my problems! Argh lol, I'll guess I'll stop there for now.

 

I have more problems, but thanks for reading. I'm hoping to explore this site more and use the search function to help find any information which might be helpful.

 

 

You may find some helpful ideas for managing anxiety without medication on the Anxiety board.

Thanks, in its extreme form it's more like PTSD than anxiety however. But I'll check it out more.